January 2022

Chile. Boric reitera que no apoyará más retiros de AFP y anticipa consenso en sucesor de Marcel en el Central

Chile. Boric reitera que no apoyará más retiros de AFP y anticipa consenso en sucesor de Marcel en el Central

El presidente electo, Gabriel Boric, reiteró que no promoverá nuevos retiros de recursos desde los fondos de pensiones y anticipó que espera un consenso en torno a la sucesión de su próximo ministro de Hacienda, Mario Marcel, en el Consejo del Banco Central, de quien destacó además su seriedad para asegurar el cumplimiento del programa de gobierno. Leer también Pensiones en Chile, otro dolor de cabeza para el GEA en medio de la pelea con los Gilinski En una entrevista en...

Investors need to create own targets for China

Asset owners need to actively determine what their exposures to China's fast-growing equity universe should be, rather than relying on emerging markets benchmark indexes providing limited access now to some of the mainland's most compelling alpha and diversification opportunities, according to Acadian Asset Management LLC. The $113 billion Boston-based quant manager's Dec. 16 paper, "Polarizing Views: China's Impact on Emerging Markets Investing," calls on institutional investors to review and revamp their allocations to China, unconstrained by benchmark weights, based on...

Pension Funding Index January 2022

By Zorast Wadia & Charles J. Clark Corporate pension plans experienced a win-win year in 2021, with an investment gain of 8.33% alongside increasing discount rates and a cumulative liability return (e.g., the projected benefit obligation decrease) of -1.96%. The result was a staggering $183 billion improvement in the funded status deficit of the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI), the second-largest in the report’s history (exceeded only by the $204 billion improvement in 2013). In 2021, corporate pension asset returns...

In a Highly Indebted Economy: Security Issues for the Asset-based China’s Reform and the Financial System

By Tianyong Zhou Since the start of the 21st century, all major global economies have been experiencing a shift to a model of low consumption, low interest rate, low inflation, low growth and high debt. China is no exception. This article argues that in the high-indebtedness economic model, the proportion of committed and guaranteed debt service credit is decreasing, while the proportion of asset-backed credit corresponding to debt is on the rise; and with respect to currency stability, the role...

The Effects of Credible Voluntary Disclosures: Institutional Investor Engagement and Investees’ ESG Performances

By Massimiliano Bonacchi, April Klein, Sara Longo & Giovanni Strampelli We study the effectiveness of institutional investor engagement on the ESG performance of a sample of UK firms listed in the FTSE 350 Index. To measure the quality of engagement, we exploit the introduction of the tiering classification system by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in 2016 for signatories’ reporting under the UK Stewardship Code. Using an entropy matched difference-in-differences research design, we show that the introduction of the tiering...

U.S. Pension Funds Hold Clue to Relief for Slumping Treasuries

U.S. pension funds may be primed to take advantage of higher yields in global bonds and could put a floor on the market’s slump. Pension funding versus liabilities was close to 100% at the end of 2021, for the first time since the financial crisis, according to investment advisory firm Milliman, based on data from 100 U.S. public companies sponsoring the largest defined benefit pension plans. Such funds could be “keen to lock in” that status and turn to the...

UK. MPs criticise ‘shameful’ underpaying of state pensions

The long-term underpayment of thousands of state pensioners, mainly widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband’s pension contributions for some of their pension, is a “shameful shambles”, according to the public spending watchdog. About 134,000 people have had their state pension underpaid to the tune of £1bn, according to a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate. The vast majority of those affected are women who should have had their pension topped up when their husband retired even if...

Canada. ESG challenges: talent shortage and lack of consistent standards

Just as awareness and support is accelerating for environmental, social, governance (ESG) investing, with retirement systems worldwide such as the Canadian pension system attracting attention for their strategies, an issue has arisen – a shortage of financial professionals with sustainable finance skills. Pension funds and investment managers are among the financial services organizations affected by the talent shortage, says a recent report from Toronto Finance International (TFI) and Deloitte. But banks and insurance companies are affected as well. How soon will...

Germany wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad each year

Germany's new coalition government wants to attract 400,000 qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both a demographic imbalance and labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. "The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy," Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "We can only get the problem of an ageing workforce under control with...

US. Pension funds pin their hopes on inflation

America’s biggest private sector pension plans did so badly last year that they earned barely half as much as the traditional low-risk, low-fee balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds. So report international pension consultants Milliman & Co. It says something about the usual performance of U.S. company pension plans that Milliman calls this 2021 result a “win.” (On the bright side, though, company pensions still did much better than Social Security, whose investments effectively lost money.) The 100 biggest private sector pension plans...